INORI-PRAYER

INORI–PRAYER is digital art collaboration between Japan-based visual design studio WOW Inc., creative production team TOKYO, the Ishikawa Watanbe Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, and iconic dance duo AyaBambi. The project was the brainchild of Nobumichi Asai, creative and technical director of WOW Inc. Inspired by the soundtrack by Yosuke Nagao’s, Asai felt the music symbolized a radioactive, destructive power. The visuals and the choreography blend together to represent “death, suffering and sadness” as well as “the opportunity to overcome.”

One of the main challenges of the project was to ensure that the facial mapping would be precise throughout the entire dance segment. After three months of trial and error, the team managed to reduce the projection delay down to mere milliseconds — this was accomplished through the use of DynaFlash, a state-of-the-art 1,000 fps projector with an ultra high-speed sensing system. The projected images take on the form of a second skin, which continuously distort and transform the faces of AyaBambi’s two dancers throughout the entire performance.